SD a must to obtain declassified documents

Gerakan’s Youth legal and public complaints bureau chief Jason Loo was simply making a song and dance act about signing a SD to obtain documents related to land in Taman Manggis.

PRESS STATEMENT The Penang Executive Council can make rules and regulations regarding the release of public documents. The committee in charge of the Freedom of Information (FOI) can, for example, make recommendations to the State Exco for the adoption of new procedures.

Meanwhile, on the matter of declassified documents, the State Exco has decided that those seeking information must sign a Statutory Declaration (SD). This was merely to ensure that documents are not distributed around.

Gerakan’s Youth legal and public complaints bureau chief Jason Loo is making a song and dance act about signing a SD to obtain documents related to land in Taman Manggis. He’s not genuine in seeking information about the land deal.

He just wants to make sure that something was wrong in the tender process in which the land was sold.

Loo turned up at the State Secretariat and paid fees for the retrieval of the documents on the sale of the Taman Manggis land. However, he complained that there was no point in obtaining the documents if has to sign a SD and it was no use if he could not share it with others.

Loo may want cheap publicity if he’s not genuinely interested in getting the tender documents on the sale of the Taman Manggis land. We are not really sure about the real motive of Loo in seeking the documents.

Perhaps, like other Gerakan leaders, he has already made up his mind that something was amiss in the tender documents pertaining to the sale of the Taman Manggis land. Even before obtaining the documents, he has already reached a conclusion that the state government had done something wrong and this was the reason why it was “so difficult” to obtain them.

Loo cannot have the cake and eat it too at the same time. He is simply creating fuss about the “difficulties” in obtaining the documents through the enactment.

A month or two back, Loo criticized the Penang Government for charging high fees in seeking to obtain documents on the Bayan Mutiara project. Later, he refused to sign the SD before obtaining the documents.